Welcome to the Adventure

How ENGR 112 Ruined Legos

Legos, the source of joy during my childhood and source of despair during college. I thought the worst thing that could come from Legos was stepping on one with your bare foot. But after taking intro to engineering aka hazing 112 I have discovered the true evil of Legos.

Over the past semester my team and I have tested the limits of Lego Mindstorm, building an Ebola fighting pill dispenser. Well at least that’s what the engineering department called it.

Nevertheless, because we were using Lego technology, designed for people that are 8 not 18, our hardware was unreliable and often crashed or decided to not work for completely arbitrary reasons. Light sensors would change readings, motors would change power, the processor would crash, and the battery life was worse than an iPhone.

Somehow, my team managed to adapt and overcome these obstacles saving all of Africa by “curing Ebola.” (I kid you not this was the official project statement put out by Texas A&M) So shout out to Daniel(“white thunder”), Reid, Miguel, Collin, Chris, and Philip we made it!

Despite our ability to overcome obstacles, a lot of frustration was still built up and countless nights were spent controlling our anger and trying not to smash the entire project. However, after the final presentation we could not help but to properly dispose of our “Ebola fighting pill dispenser.”

Out initial plan was to simply burn the entire piece of junk, but being as massive as it was, the dispenser did not fit in the fire pit. Luckily, I just happened to have an axe in my car, and after a few swings it somehow fit into the pit. We added a nice touch of gasoline to ensure a quick and humane death, and watched as we got sweet revenge on our project. (kids please don’t try this at home I am what you call an expert, burning things in my backyard since the age of 12, sorry mom.)

As it burned we began to reminisce, and that is when I realized that among all the annoyances and frustration, and as much as I hate to admit it, this project actually taught me a thing or two about engineering; it wasn’t a complete waste of time. Now don’t get me wrong, there is a lot wrong with the how the project is assigned, which is why the course changes every single year. But A&M did get a thing or two right.

So I challenge you to one persevere through hard situations, and two find the value in the less than desirable things that you must do. Because there is a reason for you to be doing it, otherwise it wouldn’t be required. As Always; make good choices, share if you like what I said, comment if you have something to add, and I’ll see you tomorrow.